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Why white space is essential in web design

Planning and designing a new business website design is one of those tasks that starts off with good intention and great ideas but has the potential to escalate into a chaotic, overwhelming experience. An overloaded mish mash of digital drama. With millions of websites online for inspiration, where the heck do you start?

And where do you finish? If you are feeling overwhelmed by your website design, how is the visitor going to feel?

Every element of a website needs to be carefully considered and balanced, from the format and font to the images, content, brand-rich graphics, SEO, and calls to action. All need to unite to create a lead generating, profit boosting visual masterpiece.

And this is why white space is an important, but often overlooked, element in website design. It's the space that gives your website a sense of balance and helps to create a visually appealing design. White space highlights specific elements of your website design and draws attention to them. It helps to make your website more user-friendly by making it easier to navigate and read.

Digital Presence is a web design company Christchurch based but serving New Zealand. We help businesses thrive online through effective yet beautiful website designs - and we are unsurprisingly big fans of white space. By using white space strategically, we create a website that is both visually appealing and supremely user-friendly. Supremely user-friendly? That’s a big thumbs up for SEO purposes too.

Example of white space web design presented on an Apple Imac

What is white space?

White space is everything from the distance between lines to the letter spacing and the space encompassing text and images. It’s the fuel of a website’s flow and enables seamless navigation.

Too much white space and the website design feels empty and causes a sense of disconnect with the reader; too little and the page feels cluttered and unprofessional. The correct use of white space increases the page’s readability by 20%.

The benefits of white space in website design

Enhances visual appeal: have you ever visited a luxury brand’s website? The generous use of white space alludes to sophistication, elegance and minimalist luxe. White space instils a sense of professionalism and trustworthiness.

Enhances readability: tightly spaced text turns readers off, and too far apart you risk the reader’s interest going elsewhere. Visitors crave easy to digest content.

Creates a sense of balance: allows the content room to breathe without overwhelming the visitor. Arguably, white space is as important as the content – a visual cue to support the hierarchy of content information.

Helps to organise content: the law of proximity helps the reader to understand the relationship between elements. Close together and they are perceived as being related and those at a distance interpreted as being different.

Focuses attention on key elements: a cluttered website dilutes the power of the core message. White space removes distractions and brings the reader’s eyes to the important element.

Website designers love white space, yet oftentimes web masters want the space filled – for every pixel to be used. However, this is a false economy, sometimes less is more and white space is not wasted space. White space underpins the best website designs – enjoyable to use, easy to interact with and easy on the eye.

Contact Digital Presence for a free no-obligation chat about your brand’s current online representation, and how we can breathe new life into it though our tailored web design services (Christchurch based but serving the rest of New Zealand too). Call 0274 278047.

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